Hi all
Any tips or alterations recommended to the TF P-47 (72") kit for electric conversion?
Im hoping to do a fast build.

Andy

I built the older topflight AT6 from a kit and there was nothing fast about it. It was long ago before electrict so OS 90 four cycle and i built her with fowler flaps and hand made spring loaded landing gear . Fun build and learned alot but it was on my bench for a while. Good luck on the conversion. joe

First, if it's the gold kit your talking about it's 63" wing span not 72". I agree with road king it's not a quick build. The only real hurdle is battery placement. I made a top hatch right behind the firewall and mounted my batteries vertical. I placed the esc on the firewall inside the cowl. I still needed about 1/2 pound of nose weight. There are many detailed build threads as this is a very popular build/conversion.

I think a hatch could be built in front of the canopy without making the firewall weak. You need to get the batterys to the front of the plane. I also think you need to run a extra battery pack for the servos and reciever and no bec ,this extra pack up in the nose plus the lipo pack or 2 lipo packs will help with your CG proplems. I run 2 - 3 cell 3200 lipo packs plus a 2700 c size sanyo nimph pack shoved in the nose of my seaplane to get my CG good ,with the sanyo pack up in front i have about 1 1/2 i can slide my lipos back and forth to adjust things. Start a build thread Andy would love to see one converted . joe

I have trolled 4 or 5 builds and got a couple of good tips. Would it be worth replacing some of the aft fuse frames with balsa laminate? There's not a lot back there to lighten up. Fibreglassing it isnt going to help cog much.

I have trolled 4 or 5 builds and got a couple of good tips. Would it be worth replacing some of the aft fuse frames with balsa laminate? There's not a lot back there to lighten up. Fibreglassing it isnt going to help cog much.

Elecrtic motors dont stress the frame as much as nitro so you can lighten up the rear with balsa stick framing and carbon fiber . I like a builder who thinks BIG Andy and if converting these over was simple every one would have one. I kept braking my elev while framing it so i put carbonfiber strips behind the leading edge and trailing edges to stop it and recut the ribs around the strips . Its been 4 years of flying and bumbing it into stuff and its not broken again. joe

In a nut shell, this is the plan. Move the firewall much further forward, to around 30mm from the cowl face (motor mount dependent).
Dont laminate the forward frames,
No fuel tank crutches or roof,
All formers aft of the cockpit replaced with Stick/sheet balsa,
Retract tail wheel,
Relocate main wheel wells for 4 1/4" dia.,
Split main spar over 3 ribs around wheel well,
Lighten tail plains & fin w rib holes and CF reinforcing.
The motor will be a Scorpion HKIII-5020-520 on 6S5000.
The battery box position will be determined by the CoG after glassing, possibly under a hatch in the top of the cowl (vertically stored).